Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c42.s1.t4.71

v3.c42.s1.t4.71

The frank and brave Rao Raja could not help deeply regretting an arrangement, which, as he emphatically said, was "clipping his wings." The disposition is a bad one, and both justice and political expediency enjoin a revision of it, and the bringing about a compromise which would restore the integrity of the most interesting and deserving little State in India.¹ Well has it repaid the anxious care we manifested for its interests ; for while every other principality has, by some means or other, caused uneasiness or trouble to the protecting power, Bundi has silently advanced to comparative prosperity, happy in her independence, and interfering with no one. The Rao Raja survived the restoration of his independence only four short years, when he was carried off by that scourge, the cholera morbus. In his extremity, writhing under a disease which unmans the strongest frame and mind, he was cool and composed. He interdicted his wives from following him to the pyre, and bequeathing his son and successor [503] to the guardianship of the representative of the British government, breathed his last in the prime of life.